Monday, March 2, 2015

FROZEN PIPES, WATER MAIN BREAKS CONTINUE TO IMPACT WESTERN NEW YORK









FEBRUARY 26, 2015

BRADFORD, N.Y. (WIVB)

Frozen pipes and water main breaks are impacting communities across western New York and northern Pennsylvania. The latest break is in Niagara County, where one caused Lewiston Porter Central to close for the day. In Erie County Thursday morning, there were breaks in the City of Tonawanda on Main Street, and Town of Tonawanda on Ellicott Creek Road.

The Erie County Water Authority has fixed 50 different water breaks just this week, and dozens more are on the list. When a water main breaks, the water can flood the streets and quickly freeze, creating a sheet of ice on the roads. This and frozen pipes are taking a toll on the area, during this frigid February.

Several residents and drivers have been dealing with problems; From a water main break that shut down Transit Road and Broadway last week, to the one that forced the current State of Emergency in the City of Bradford, to one that had part of Elmwood Avenue shut down Wednesday night, to another one in downtown Buffalo, that flooded the intersection of Lower Terrace and Erie Street.

The break downtown had drivers looking for help when they couldn’t make through the intersection.

Thomas Augello said, “I went through it fine coming down. When I picked up my mother and coming back out, instead of going right heading back into it, I made a left and it was worse off. I was like two-and-a-half feet deep in water.”

Down in Bradford, Pennsylvania, residents in the lower lying areas are slowly getting water back after a big pipe burst, but not all the fire hydrants are pressurized. People who live in higher elevations will have to wait longer to have running water.

“There are 18,000 people affected and this is what Bradford does, it’s like Buffalo when something bad happens, everybody comes together,  everybody looks out for their neighbors, it’s the exact same thing here,” said J.D. Tehle, captain of the Bradford Fire Department.

For anyone who needs water there are four distribution centers in the area:

City of Bradford Fire Department
Derek City Volunteer Fire Department
Lewis Run Volunteer Fire Department
Bradford Volunteer Fire Department